Taking inspiration from the Crocodile and the Fairy Stone, the following short story was penned by the Granddaughter of St Fillans residents, Dave & Lynda Pryde. At the time Emma Pryde attended Woodmill High School in Dunfermline but for inspiration for her story, she drew largely on some of our weel-kent local landmarks………enjoy!

The Stone Dragon

Sometime in the early 1900s, far in the North of Scotland, an old railway worker was going about his day on the hills of Glen Tarken when he came across an oddly shaped rock which he thought resembled the head of a stone dragon. To humour himself he rushed home to find brushes and pots of paint. When he returned to the hills, he then painted the face of a fierce dragon baring his teeth onto the large stone. However, little did the man know that this was in fact a real, ancient dragon whose story had been long forgotten.

Between the extinction of the dinosaurs and the dawn of man there was a period of time where the world was dominated by magical and mythical creatures. Some of the most powerful of these creatures were the fairies and the dragons. In this age, the fairies roamed the highlands of Scotland using their charms to bring the day and night. The fairies loathed the dragons, whose enchantments brought the changing of seasons and weather.

One particular herd of fairies lived in Glen Tarken where Draco, the last dragon, dwelt. The fairies wanted him to leave as he caused harsh and sudden changes to the seasons while they wanted more of the long summer days full of warm, bright sunlight. So, the fairies devised a plan to trick the dragon.

The interesting thing about dragons is that they can only come out during the night, when the moon casts white light on the hilltops and the stars dance in the sky. If one were to be caught in sunlight, they would instantly begin to harden and turn to cool stone.

One breezy Autumn day, Draco lay in a deep sleep under the orange hills of the glen; the fairies gathered at the entrance to the hole where he lay and using their magic, cast a pale light down into the hillside to make it look as though the moon was out. Draco yawned and stretched before making his way out into the open. Once almost fully out, the fairies stopped their trick and warm light shone onto the dragon’s scales. The dragon roared out in pain and he realised he had been tricked, desperately he tried to slither back out of the sunlight in retreat, but it was too late.

Draco turned to stone with only his head poking out the side of the hill, frozen with his mouth open as he cursed the fairies in his final moment. His curse trapped the fairies inside of a large stone on the far side of the glen, where they remained for the rest of time, made to grant the wishes of anyone who left an item on the rock as payment in return for their wish.

To this day you can still wander the glen and visit the fairy stone to make a wish or to see the stone head of the last dragon, who is forever trapped on the amber hillside of Glen Tarken.

Emma Pyrde, 2020